Still A Better Love Story Than Twilight
by sleepy-emo
Summary: On his 16th birthday Harry discovers the existence of an ancient family curse that turns him into a vampire. Dumbledore then sends him off to Monster High to live with a distant relative, Draculaura. While there he finds himself caught up in a feud between vampires and werewolves, discovering his new powers and finding love with a werewolf. Dissertation commission for Druid Star.


**So this epic one-shot (epic in both proportions because it's amazing and so long haha) was written for My Druid Star as a present and challenge for her dissertation. Basically she told me the story she wanted and we both thought it would be funny if I matched her word for word so I did. Final word count 21,987 words. Four months of writing and crazy filler on a character who is literally in one episode for about twelve minutes haha love you Druid 3**

Harry Potter had always known that he was a bit on the different side. He had known that he was unlike the other children at school long before Hagrid's visit on his eleventh birthday when the truth about him being a wizard was revealed. Even when he had arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry it had very quickly become apparent that the 'famous Harry Potter' was more than met the eye (his ability to speak parseltongue being one thing). At the end of his fifth year he had discovered his role as The Chosen One in the battle against Lord Voldemort but it wasn't until his sixteenth birthday when he finally discovered just how different from everyone else he really was.

When he had awoke on the morning he turned sixteen Harry had gone to the bathroom only to discover that he no longer had a reflection. Thinking that Fred and George had played some kind of birthday joke on him he proceeded to run down to the nearest shop to the Dursley's house that sold mirrors and a journey that should have taken him ten minutes took him only ten seconds. As he had stood outside the shop, staring at his still non-existent reflection, he had felt a burning sensation all over his skin and found it smoking so ran inside.

To say that the shop keeper had been surprised when a barely clothed seventeen year old boy wrenched the door to his shop off its hinges and ran inside with smoke coming off his skin in columns would have been an understatement. Once he had gotten over the initial shock he had picked up the phone to call the police but as soon as his back was turned Harry had darted out of the shop and back to the safety of the Dursley's, trying to ignore the small, painful fires flaring to life on his skin as he ran.

When he had returned Harry had routed through the mountain of books Hermione had lent him (knowing full well that he wouldn't read any of them) until he had found the one he was looking for; 'Magical Beings You Really Don't Want To Piss Off'. Harry had flipped to the index, trying his hardest to remember one of Lupin's 'Defence Against The Dark Arts' lessons from third year. He had been almost certain that (if he was remembering his old teacher correctly) there was only one being that had the kind of characteristics that he was displaying. He had flipped to the page and read until he reached a list of his new found symptoms; super human strength and speed, no reflection and burning in the sunlight…it was official, Harry Potter was a vampire!

Harry had sat there for at least twenty minutes trying to work out how in the hell he had suddenly turned into a vampire. He sure as hell didn't remember being bitten by anyone (or anything) and he was pretty sure that he hadn't been part of some kind of ritualistic satanic sacrifice so, according to the book, the only option left was that he had somehow inherited his bizarre new trait. The more Harry had read the more it had begun to make sense (in a very disturbing and twisted way) that this gene that turned him into a being that drank blood was in his blood.

After calming down from the initial shock of suddenly discovering his vampiric potential inheritance (Harry still wasn't totally ruling out the possibility of being snacked on by a vampire in his sleep) Harry had sent an urgent owl to Professor Dumbledore asking to see him so that he could find out what in the name of Merlin's saggy ballsack was going on. Shortly after he had sent Hedwig he had received a reply asking him to come to the castle as soon as possible. Easier said than done Harry had thought as he rummaged around in his trunk for his invisibility cloak, hoping that it would be enough to protect him from the burning sunlight, before grabbing his Firebolt and flying out the open window.

"Professor?" Harry asked as he knocked on the half open door of his eccentric headmaster's office.

"Ah, Harry, come in." Dumbledore said softly, looking up from the parchment on the desk in front of him. "Take a seat," he said indicating the chair on the other side of the desk. "you must have a lot of questions."

"Something like that." Harry muttered sitting down and looking at Dumbledore expectantly. He waited for the old wizard to say something but after knowing Albus Dumbledore for five years now he knew that if he wanted answers he would have to start this conversation himself. "Professor, what's happening to me?"

"Well," Dumbledore began, looking at Harry over the top of his half-moon spectacles. "it seems that many centuries ago one of your ancestors got into a disagreement with a very powerful vampire, over a little misunderstanding concerning a lot of money and large quantities of what is now the Muggle drug cocaine, and had a curse placed upon him. The curse stated that the first born male of every other generation in the Potter lineage would be turned into a vampire once they reached their sixteenth birthday."

"So is that what I am now?" Harry asked, trying to wrap his head around the situation. "A vampire?"

"Essentially yes." Dumbledore replied. "If you have suddenly gained the ability to do things that you perhaps couldn't before."

"Like running really fast and catching fire in the sunlight." Harry suggested only slightly sarcastically. Dumbledore chuckled.

"That will pass, in time." he said. "In time you will learn to control all of your new abilities."

"So I won't be ripping doors off their hinges after a while?" Harry asked.

"Once you learn to control your abilities you will be a stronger, faster, more powerful wizard than you were before." Dumbledore told him. "However," he added a little solemnly. "I believe that Hogwarts is not the right environment for you to learn and master this control in."

"What do you mean Professor?" Harry asked suddenly confused and on edge – was he being expelled for suddenly becoming a vampire? No, Dumbledore surely wouldn't do that would he? That's hardly fair!

"Well," Dumbledore began, leaning forward on the desk and linking his bony fingers in front of his lips. "when I noticed that your father didn't display any vampire characteristics, when he was as school, I knew that it would be you who was affected by the curse when the time came so I made arrangements for it."

"You knew about the curse?" Harry asked still trying to wrap his head around all the new information about himself that, once again, no one had ever bothered to tell him about before.

"Oh yes." the headmaster stated. "In fact I wrote one of my dissertations on it."

"Right…" Harry muttered. Of course Dumbledore had known about the curse – Dumbledore seemed to know everything about Harry's family history and always neglected to mention it to Harry. "Hang on, arrangements?" he added when the rest of what Dumbledore had just said registered, a sense of foreboding filling his stomach. He couldn't help but think about the last time Dumbledore had 'made arrangements' for him; he had ended up living in a cupboard under the stairs for eleven years!

"An old friend of mine runs a school especially for youngsters such as yourself and there you will learn to master and control your new abilities." Dumbledore explained. "She has agreed to take you as a transfer student for the next year – you'll be staying with a distant relative of yours who is a student at the school and also a vampire. You will attend classes and learn to balance being a vampire and a wizard at the same time. Then, when you have mastered this, you will return to Hogwarts to finish your final year."

"But what about my N.E.W.T.s?" Harry asked. "What about being the Chosen One? What about the prophesy?" Was Dumbledore really telling him to leave when they seemed to be on the brink of uncovering something important about the prophesy that it seemed his entire future was hanging on? The whole 'neither can live while the other survives' was a constant niggle in Harry's mind and he couldn't imagine just packing up and leaving without finding out more about it.

"I will send you regular updates of everything I discover about the prophesy concerning you and Lord Voldemort along with work from the classes that you will be missing." Dumbledore told him. Great, Harry thought, double homework for two different schools :- he'd never find the time to do anything but homework!

"So everything is already arranged?" Harry asked. He had finally run out of reasons to get Dumbledore to reconsider and let him stay at Hogwarts.

"All you have to do is pack your trunk." the old man smiled, his eyes twinkling. Harry sighed; there was literally nothing he could do to get out of this so he might as well just go with it.

"So where is it I'm going?" Harry asked, trying not to sound as if he had been totally defeated.

"Welcome to Monster High Mr Potter." the headmistress of Harry's new school said smiling at Harry from across her desk. "I am Headmistress Bloodgood and I have been informed of your current situation by Albus Dumbledore. We welcome you to our school and I hope that you settle in here quickly."

"Thank you." Harry said unsure of what else to say in response. In truth he was too busy staring at the dismembered head of his new school's headmistress sitting on the desk looking at him, her body in the chair behind it absentmindedly filing her nails. Harry knew he shouldn't be staring, he had seen things that were just as strange (and in some ways even more strange) in the wizarding world (and he had been there long enough to have gotten used to it by now) but, at the same time, he had never seen a person without a head who was still living.

"As I understand it you will be staying with a distant relative of yours." Bloodgood stated putting down her nail file and picking up her head.

"Yeah but I've never actually met them before." Harry replied as Bloodgood put her head back on her shoulders.

"Well there's a first time for everything." she said standing up and going over to the door. She opened it and stuck her head out into the corridor. "Draculaura will you come in here, please."

Harry turned to the door, a little apprehensive to meet this distant relative he knew virtually nothing about. The door opened and a teenage girl walked in. She was incredibly short – even in the ridiculously high heels she was wearing she still only came up to Harry's chin – she looked as if she was about the same age as Harry was and she was so very, very pink! Bright pink lipstick was accompanied by bright pink nails and bright pink streaks stood out against her black hair. Her clothes were all the same mix of pink and black, her skin had a very slight pink tint to it and she had a small pink heart tattooed underneath her right eye. The girl gave Harry a beaming smile when she saw him.

"Hi I'm Draculaura and you must be Harry. I'm your great aunt twice removed or your second cousin three times removed…er, I forget which. Either way it's totes weird as we look the same age." The girl, Dracualura, spoke very quickly, in a very high pitch and with a slight Transylvanian twang that made it virtually impossible for Harry to follow what she was saying and he had no idea what on earth 'totes' meant. "So you're a vampire too right?"

"Um yeah, sort of." Harry replied uncomfortably. Draculaura let out a high pitched squeal of excitement and jumped on Harry, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Argh this is so totes amazing! I can teach you all about being a vampire and life at Monster High!" she exclaimed happily. "It's such an awesomely cool school – you'll fit right in. Now come on," she added after the most miniscule of pauses, grabbing Harry's hand. "I want you to meet all my friends."

Meeting Draculaura's friends was an overwhelming experience, to say the least, as they were all unlike anyone Harry had met in his life. Sure he had come across werewolves and vampires at Hogwarts before but these girls were something else. There was Frankie, who was made out of a number of different body parts, Clawdeen, who seemed to be permanently stuck halfway between the transformation from human to werewolf, and Lagoona, who had gills but seemed to be perfectly able to breathe out of the water. There was also Cleo, who seemed to glare at everyone she looked at, Ghoulia, who just smiled at him but said nothing, and Abbey, who tilted her head to the side and stared at Harry as if he was the strange one in this group.

In truth Harry was the odd one out of Draculaura and her friends. If nothing else Harry was the most human looking out of all of them. He was also the only male stuck in a tedious conversation about shoes, clothes and makeup.

"So Harry," Lagoona said breaking him out of the train of thought he had been having about manly things to try and make himself feel more masculine, even though he hadn't gotten very far with it. "how did you end up at Monster High?"

"Well I'm a transfer student." Harry told them shifting a little nervously. "I became a vampire so my current headmaster sent me here to learn how to control my new abilities. He basically wants me to stop ripping doors off their hinges. Once the year is over I'll go back to Hogwarts and finish school there."

"So how did you become a vampire anyways?" Clawdeen asked. "I mean you're obviously not sixteen hundred, like Draculaura, if you're only just learning how to be one."

"Well, apparently centuries ago this curse was placed on my family…" Harry began.

"Oh an ancient family curse," Cleo said snidely. "how droll."

"The curse said," Harry continued irritably, ignoring Cleo. "that the first born male of every other generation would turn into a vampire once they turned sixteen."

"You mean you just woke up on your sixteenth birthday and you were a vampire?" Frankie asked.

"Pretty much." Harry replied. It was quite strange, he thought, to be the centre of attention and it not be related to Voldemort. He was used to people asking him questions about being 'the boy who lived' and all the rest of the crazy stuff that had happened to him over the last five years at Hogwarts but these people knew nothing about that. It was quite refreshing, he thought, it meant that he could start again and not have people staring at him in the corridors. When he consider the appearances of the people he was standing with he looked positively normal.

"So where are you staying while you're in town?" Lagoona asked.

"He's staying with me!" Draculaura sang excitedly, throwing her arms around Harry's neck, pulling him down so that he was the same height as her. "It's going to be so much fun! I always wanted a little brother." Harry smiled awkwardly, privately thinking that if either of them was going to be mistaken for the 'little' sibling it wasn't going to be the 5'10'' boy.

"Do you have any sisters Harry?" Frankie asked. Harry shook his head.

"I grew up living with my cousin Dudley and when I was at Hogwarts most of the girls kept to themselves. Aside from my friend, Hermione, and my friend Ron's sister, Ginny, I haven't really spent that much time around girls." he explained.

"So strange boy has never lived with girl before." Abbey said, more to herself than to any of the others. "Like baby yak thrown in with wolf pack."

"You mean you've never had any girl friends before?" Frankie asked.

"I have." Harry said a little defensively. "Just not particularly girlie ones." Harry knew that if Hermione or Ginny heard that he had referred to them as 'not particularly girlie' then they would hex him into the next century but they were at Hogwarts and he was at Monster High, so hopefully they wouldn't find out…ever!

"You know what that means, girls." Frankie stated, a wicked grin forming on her face.

"We got to give him a makeover!" Clawdeen grinned and Harry felt his stomach hit the floor as the prospect sank in. They were going to give him a makeover?! The girls who had spent most of the morning talking about makeup and shoes and hairstyles and a load of other things Harry hadn't understood were going to be dressing him up like a doll.

"Guys," Lagoona said in an attempt to burst their bubble of happiness. "you can't give him a makeover!" Harry gave her a grateful smile, out of all of them Lagoona seemed to be the most normal, or at least the most sane.

"Of course we can." Cleo said smirking. "Besides he needs to wear something nicer than those rags he's got on now."

"Look who's talking." Harry muttered so that Cleo wouldn't hear him. He knew that his tattered old jeans and jumper (another Christmas gift from Mrs Weasley) weren't exactly the height of fashion but at least he wasn't wearing bandages up his arms like she was.

The girls were still discussing the various looks they were going to try out on Harry when the school bell began ringing overhead. Harry blinked, suddenly remembering that he was supposed to actually go to classes. As that thought crossed his mind Harry suddenly felt as nervous as he had on his first day at Hogwarts, but at least then he had been in the same position as the rest of his classmates. When he first arrived at Hogwarts Harry was learning magic for the first time along with everyone else but here he was being thrown in at the deep end while everyone else was already used to swimming.

"You ready for class Harry?" Frankie asked.

"Um, I think so…" Harry replied although he didn't feel ready in the slightest.

"Uuurgh!" Ghoulia let out a long, drawn out moan.

"Hey Ghoulia's right!" Clawdeen exclaimed. "If Harry sits next to her then she can help him catch up."

"Hey that's a totes amazing idea!" Draculaura exclaimed. "Great thinking Ghoulia, now let's get to class before we get double homework for being late." With that the seven girls began making their way down the corridors to their classroom, Harry following wondering how on earth they had gotten all of that from Ghoulia's moaning.

The school day passed relatively easily once Harry got into the swing of it. He was able to follow most of what the teachers were talking about and what he didn't understand Ghoulia was able to help him with…even if he had no idea what she was actually saying to him. So far everyone (well everyone with the exception of Cleo) had made Harry feel welcome and normal…well normal considering that he was at a school full of monsters. At least he didn't feel like a complete freak for being a vampire.

After school Draculaura and her friends had taken Harry to the mall, to the nearest clothing store they could find and began picking out new outfits for him. Thankfully the store had a men's department – he honestly wouldn't have put it passed them to stick him in a dress after Cleo had spent all day commenting on his feminine physique and his 'weird girlie legs'. Harry had allowed them to put him in a variety of different outfits with very little protest (apart from when Draculaura had tried to put him in a skirt and halter-neck), he was just enjoying being around people who didn't have a care in the world for a change. He did, however, find the constant stream of make-up, boys and Justin Biter (whoever he was) talk a little gruelling.

"Hey, Draculaura," Harry began as the two of them made their way back to Draculaura's from the mall later that evening. "don't get me wrong, you and your friends are great and everything but do you know any other boys?" Draculaura struck the palm of her hand to her forehead in realisation.

"Duh!" she exclaimed more to herself than to Harry. "Of course you don't want to be around girls all the time! Oh, I'm sorry; it must have been really boring for you."

"No!" Harry lied. "It's just I…"

"Need to have some guy talk." Draculaura smiled brightly. Harry sighed in relief, thankful that she understood where he was coming from. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her feelings but he couldn't sit through another conversation about lip-liner and hair extensions and he already knew the names of two of the Jaundice Brothers! He needed to get out before it was too late!

"Yeah." he agreed.

"That's cool," Draculaura smiled. "I'll introduce you to my boyfriend, Clawd, he knows lots of guys."

"Clawd," Harry mused. "is he related to Clawdeen by any chance?"

"Yeah, how did you know?" Draculaura asked in surprise.

"Lucky guess." Harry replied privately thinking that Clawdeen and Clawd's parents weren't overly imaginative when it came to naming their children.

"Wow you're smart!" Dracualura stated without a shred of sarcasm. No, Harry thought, they're just way too obvious. "But, yeah, Clawd is Clawdeen's older brother.

"And your parents are ok with you going out with him?" Harry asked. Even though he didn't know that many girls he was sure that if Ginny turned round and said she was going out with an older boy Mr Weasley (and all her brothers for that matter) would be furious.

"Well they weren't crazy about it at first." Draculaura replied. "I mean vampires and werewolves don't really get on much; they've been fighting for, like, centuries!"

"I meant because he's older than you," Harry stated. "but vampires and werewolves been fighting for years! Why?"

"No one really knows anymore." Draculaura replied. "I think it all started when this werewolf got on the wrong side of this vampire over this human girl or something like that."

"Doesn't seem like a very good reason to be fighting for centuries." Harry said pondering Draculaura's cliff-noted version of events, privately hoping that there was more to the story than just that.

"It's not a particularly good story but some werewolves and vampires still keep away from each other." she shrugged. "My parents have accepted that I'm dating Clawd and that I'm friends with Clawdeen but it took them a while to get over it."

"So some vampires still believe that werewolves are evil and vice versa?" Harry asked. He was still trying to wrap his head around it all. He knew that there was a lot of prejudice around both werewolves and vampires in the wizarding world but he hadn't realised that the groups were also at war with each other.

"Yeah but they really need to just get over it." Dracualura said flicking her wrist in a blasé fashion. "I mean all this fighting is like way boring! I wouldn't worry though; it's not likely to affect you much. The only werewolves you'll hang out with are Clawd and Clawdeen at school and no one really cares there."

"I guess so." Harry replied.

"And if you do meet any that don't like vampires try not to get on their bad side, kay?"

"Yeah." Harry replied. "As long as I don't go looking for trouble…" Even though it always seems to find me, he thought.

"So Harry, you ever played Casketball before?" Clawd asked tossing Harry the orange rubber ball, grinning at him.

"No." Harry admitted catching the ball just before it hit him in the chest.

"Ever played any sport before?" Clawd grinned looking pointedly at Harry's spindly legs.

"I've played Quidditch before." Harry said defensively.

"What's Quidditch?" Clawd asked cocking his head to the side, his right ear twitching slightly in confusion.

"It's this game we played at my old school; we flew around on brooms and had this one ball, called a Quaffle which gets passed between the three Chasers who have to get it in these three hoops at the end of each side of the field. While they're doing that the Beaters have to keep the Bludgers away from them – Bludgers are these two smaller balls that fly at you and try to knock you off your broom…but in a fun way. Then, while all this is going on the last member of the team is flying around looking for this tiny little ball called the Golden Snitch and when they catch that the game is over and usually the person who catches it, wins it for their team." Harry explained. Clawd blinked at him.

"Yeah Casketball's a lot less complicated." he stated. "It's kind of like the normie game basketball."

"Oh ok, I've played that before." Harry said nodding in comprehension. "Do you play on a team?"

"Yeah I'm on the school team." Clawd replied grinning. "Hey!" he exclaimed suddenly. "You should try out for the team too; we're always looking for some fresh blood."

At that Harry's stomach growled loudly and he suddenly became painfully aware that, since turning into a vampire he hadn't actually had that much substantial to eat. Unfortunately for him Draculaura didn't eat blood, even the mention of it had her feeling queasy (which Harry thought was a bit of a drawback for someone who's staple diet should be comprised of it), and the blood substitute drink just wasn't filling him up! He needed some real blood if he was going to keep from wanting to pass out on a daily basis.

"Are the try out's hard?" Harry asked ignoring his aching stomach and thinking about how easy his Quidditch try out had been considering they already knew that he had the talent they were after. He had walked on to the pitch knowing that he was as good as in.

"Nah, it's a piece of cake." Clawd waved him off grinning. "If you've been playing that Quidditch thing for a few years then you'll walk it."

"That's good." Harry said grinning and passing the ball back to Clawd. "So who else is on the team?"

"Well there's me, Duce – Cleo's boyfriend, Lagoona's boyfriend Gill sometimes plays but he's more of a swimmer, Heath Burns…" Clawd listed passing the ball back to Harry to get him warmed up.

"Who?" Harry asked as he caught the ball and passed it back.

"The guy in our class with the fire hair." Clawd told him and Harry nodded as he realised who he was talking about. "He's kind of a hot head but he's a good guy. Oh and my buddy Romulus has just joined the team too." Clawd added, remembering. "Hey, Romulus is a transfer student too so you're not the only newbie."

"Really?" Harry asked. This was good; a friend of Clawd's, who was in the same position as he was and he might be able to help Harry accumulate to life in the monster world slightly better as he wasn't in his comfort zone either.

"Yeah he's originally from Crescent Moon High, on the other side of town, but he transferred here a few weeks ago." Clawd explained. "He was captain of the Casketball team at his old school so he joined our team as soon as he got here. Hey, here he comes now." Clawd exclaimed pointing over to the changing room doors.

Harry turned to see the doors open and a boy, roughly the same height and build as Clawd, came out wearing nothing but a pair of gym shorts. Harry's eyes widened as he took in the sight of the werewolf in front of him. He was tall, well built with a definite six pack and piercing blue eyes with hair that flashed different shades of brown ranging from chestnut to the colour of bark. Harry felt his eyes lingering on that six pack as he stared, a little open mouthed, at the werewolf walking towards him. He had never seen anyone with a stomach that sculpted before and a blush began to creep up his neck as his heart began to beat faster.

"Wow!" he breathed his voice barely above a whisper. He was pretty sure that neither Clawd nor Romulus had heard his exclamation as Clawd rolled his eyes at his friend and tossed him a black and white vest lying on one of the nearby benches.

"Romulus put a shirt on dude!" he exclaimed. "You can't just go walking round with your fur out, especially not when the Fearleading Squad come in." He threw the vest at Romulus who caught it with one hand and began to pull it on.

"Yeah, yeah." Romulus replied, shaking his head. As he pulled the vest down covering Harry's view of his six pack (and effectively breaking the spell it had put on him) he looked up and seemed to finally notice Harry standing there. "Hey Clawd who's this?"

"This is Harry." Clawd said putting his arm around Harry's shoulders and pushing him closer to Romulus. "He's a distant relative of Draculaura's; he's a transfer student too."

"Hi." Harry said shyly, extending his hand. As Romulus looked down at him with those piercing blue eyes of his Harry felt his stomach flutter. He had no idea what was causing the flutter but there was just something about the way Romulus was looking at him that made him feel nervous. Romulus took his hand and, as he shook it, Harry felt as if his hand had caught fire and he gulped. Romulus looked Harry up and down, his expression suddenly hard.

"He's a vampire." he stated turning to Clawd dropping Harry's hand as if he had a contagious disease.

"Rom." Clawd said a warning tone in his voice.

"What?" Romulus hissed at him. "You're dating a vampire, I've accepted that but that doesn't mean I have to spend time with ones that aren't her."

"Come on man." Clawd whispered but his whisper was still loud enough for Harry to hear. "He's new, he never been to a monster school before and he doesn't have that many guy friends. Can't you just forget all that feud stuff for now?" Harry saw Romulus survey him through narrowed eyes and he gave him what he hoped was a friendly smile (although he was pretty sure that it just came across as creepy because he was so nervous.)

"Fine." Romulus relented. "I'll play nice, for you." he added giving Clawd a pointed look.

"Good." Clawd grinned slinging an arm around Romulus' shoulder and practically dragged him over to Harry. He then slung his free arm around Harry's shoulders and pushed his two friends closer together. "I'm gonna go get the rest of the team, you two get to know each other." Before Harry could protest at being left with someone who clearly didn't like him and made him feel nervous Clawd was out of the gym like a shot.

"So," Harry began breaking the awkward silence in an attempt to diffuse the tension. "you're name's Romulus, huh?"

"What of it?" Romulus asked in a bored voice.

"I have a godfather called Remus." Harry stated grinning like an idiot. "He's a werewolf too."

"Awesome." Romulus replied flatly and continued to stare straight ahead of him, ignoring Harry completely. "Why do you think I'd care?" Harry shrugged.

"Just making conversation, I guess." he muttered, downcast.

"Listen vampire," Romulus snapped turning to face Harry, glaring. "I know Clawd wants us to get on and be all pally-pally and everything but I don't like vampires and I don't want to hang around with one."

"What about Draculaura?" Harry asked in a small voice.

"I put up with Draculaura because of Clawd." Romulus replied. "I don't need to do that with you. Now, if you'll excuse me, the smell of vampire is making me sick." Romulus turned and began to walk back to the locker room leaving Harry to stare after him.

Without thinking, and without even knowing why he did it, Harry ran after Romulus. He stretched out his hand and grabbed a fistful of the vest the werewolf was wearing. Romulus stopped and turned to look at Harry who was staring at the floor. Harry could feel his heart hammering in his chest as he tried to scramble for the right words to say. This was crazy; Harry had fought a basilisk, a three headed dog, a dragon, mermaids, dementors, Death Eaters and various other magical nasties – not to mention facing Voldemort on four separate occasions – but for some reason this was making him nervous. He took a deep breath.

"You shouldn't judge me." Harry murmured.

"What?"

"You shouldn't judge me just because I'm a vampire." Harry said a little louder so that Romulus could hear him. Harry looked up into Romulus' eyes. "I didn't ask for this to happen, to be perfectly honest I'm sick of crazy stuff always happening to me, but the point is I am a vampire now. You shouldn't hold that against me when I have no control over it."

Romulus stared down at Harry, continuing to glare at him. Harry stared into his eyes and felt himself blushing and turned away, still gripping on to Romulus' shirt. He didn't know what was possessing him to keep his hold on the shirt (or even what had made him stop Romulus in the first place) but for some reason he needed to make this prejudice werewolf understand him. He let his grip on the shirt slacken and felt the material slip out of his fingers as Romulus turned to face him.

"Listen, it's nothing personal." he stated flatly and Harry looked up at him. Romulus was still glaring at him but he didn't seem as hostile as before. "It's just how I was brought up:- vampires and werewolves don't spend time together. I know Clawd and Draculaura's parents are ok with it but mine won't be."

"I'm not saying we'd be like Clawd and Draculaura." Harry replied. For one thing we're both guys, he thought. "I'm just saying that you might like me if you get to know me." Romulus raised an eyebrow at Harry who smiled shyly up at him. Romulus let out a soft laugh and gave him a small smile.

"I'm not making any promises," he told him. "but I'll give you a chance." Harry smiled up at him and Romulus gave him a look that wasn't completely filled with disdain. Harry thought Romulus looked as if he was about to say something else but the gym doors crashed open and a boy wearing sunglasses with green snakes for hair burst in.

"Dudes!" Duce exclaimed, beaming and jumping on Romulus and Harry. "Let's play some Casketball!" Duce pulled both of them into a tight hug and Harry saw Clawd rolling his eyes. Harry grinned, Clawd's friends may be a little insane but he was just glad to be in a male conversation for a change.

"Oh crap!" Harry muttered as he ran down one of the corridors. He had been training in the gym with Clawd and Duce before class and had lost track of the time after the other two had left – turns out Casketball was harder than Harry had first thought. It required a lot of physical exertion and since Harry had spent the last five years riding around on a broom he was a little out of practice. However he had been practising a little bit too long that morning and he had made himself late for class and being coupled with still not fully knowing his way round meant he was running around the corridors aimlessly, looking for the right room.

Harry rounded a corner and found himself colliding with something solid. The force of the impact made Harry stumble backwards before falling to the floor with a painful thump. He winced and rubbed the base of his spine.

"You alright there?" a familiar voice asked. Harry looked up and found himself staring into the cool blue eyes of Romulus. Harry's stomach lurched slightly; for some reason, unknown to him, Harry felt nervous when he was alone with Romulus (not that he had actually spent that much time alone with Romulus since their very first meeting, but still). He knew that Romulus wasn't found of vampires but it was something more than that.

There was just something about Romulus that made Harry nervous. It might have been the fact that he was incredibly good looking. Harry couldn't deny that he had acknowledge how attractive the werewolf was when he had first met him but (aside from a drunken fumble with Seamus that Parvati and Lavender had practically forced on them after they'd all had half a glass of Fire Whiskey in their fourth year) he had never really taken to men. "Hey," Romulus said breaking Harry out of his daze. "are you alright?"

"Um yeah." Harry said shaking his head and smiling up at him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to run into you."

"Don't worry about it." Romulus said and extended his hand to Harry. He took it and Romulus pulled him to his feet. "You want to watch where you're going."

"Yeah…" Harry replied rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "I was king of late for class; that's why I was running."

"Still don't know your way around, huh?" Romulus asked smirking slightly.

"Not really." Harry admitted. He had been at the school for a couple of days now but every corridor still looked exactly the same as every other corridor in the damn building.

"Where are you supposed to be?" Romulus asked. Harry pulled a piece of paper out of his back pocket and unfolded it. Ghoulia had kindly drawn Harry a well detailed map to go along with his class schedule.

"Um Room 101." Harry read, squinting slightly at Ghoulia's jumbled handwriting. "Die Section Class…whatever that is." Romulus took the schedule from Harry and looked at it.

"Dissection Class you total ghoul." Romulus chuckled handing the paper back.

"Oh." Harry laughed in embarrassment as he folded the paper and slipped it back into his pocket, avoiding Romulus' eye. "Right."

"I've got that class now too so I can show you where to go." Romulus stated and Harry looked up at him in surprise. After the way Romulus had reacted when they first met Harry hadn't expected him to offer to help.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked. Romulus shrugged.

"I'm not going to leave you standing in the corridor when we're going in the same direction."

"But I thought you didn't hang out with vampires." Harry stated and Romulus shrugged again.

"I don't but you are some distant relative of my best friend's ghoulfriend and we're both on the Casketball team; I should make an effort to get on with you as we'll probably be spending some time together." he stated. "Besides," he added after a pause. "I might like you once I get to know you."

"Something like that." Harry grinned, blushing slightly, as his own words were echoed back at him.

"Come on," Romulus smiled and gestured his head in the direction Harry had been running in. Well at least he had been going the right way, he thought. "let's get to class." Romulus began making his way down the maze of corridors and Harry followed, in silence, trying to memorise the right way for next time. After they had turned a few corners Harry spoke up.

"So I'm guessing Dissection Class is exactly what it says right?" he asked. "I mean, you get stuff to cut up and then look at what's inside right?"

"Are you trying to make conversation again?" Romulus asked raising an eyebrow and smirking at him.

"Just thought it would pass the time till we get to class." Harry pouted. Romulus just laughed and carried on walking.

"Yeah we dissect things." he replied. "Although I usually end up doing most of the dissecting myself as I don't have a lab partner."

"Neither do I." Harry realised. Great, not only did he have to catch up to everyone else he had no one to work with. At least he was in the same position as Romulus…hey, wait! Harry smacked the palm of his hand to his forehead as he realised his own stupidity. "Hang on, we could partner up!" he exclaimed.

"I guess so." Romulus mused. "It would make sense as we both need lab partners. Aren't you really behind though?"

"I'm pretty good at this stuff; I'm pretty sure I can pick it up easily enough." Harry lied ignoring his dire potions grades (he maintained they were only that bad because Snape didn't like him anyway) hoping that he could just put any bad grades down to having to catch up to new classes.

"Cool," Romulus smiled as they reached a door with '101' written in bones and a small bat sitting above the bones on it. "let's cut some stuff up." He pushed open the door and held it open for Harry as the two of them entered the classroom.

"Hey Harry!" came a shout from halfway across the classroom. He looked round and saw Draculaura, Clawd and the rest of their friends sitting in pairs, waiting for the class to start. Harry and Romulus weaved their way over to them. "I thought you'd got lost, you were so late!" Draculaura stated.

"Yeah I was but I bumped into Romulus and he showed me how to get here." Harry told her. "He also offered to be my lab partner as neither of us has one."

"Being super nice there Rom," Clawd smirked with a raised eyebrow. "had a change of heart?"

"Well…" Romulus shrugged tailing off noncommittally.

"Of course he's being nice; how can you resist that face?!" Draculaura squealed. "He's so cute." Romulus said nothing but gave Harry's hair a ruffle before taking the seat next to the empty one next to Draculaura, allowing Harry the space to sit next to her. Harry sat down, feeling a blush creeping up his cheeks that he was pretty sure had nothing to do with the embarrassment of nearly being late for class.

The rest of Harry's first week at Monster High passed relatively quickly. He had managed to halfway catch up with the rest of his class and he was enjoying being part of the Casketball team. When he wasn't in class he spent most of his time with Draculaura and her friends and during this time he found himself spending more and more time with Romulus. It had started with not wanting to talk about hair extensions and boy-bands and, as Clawd, Duce and Gill had their respective girlfriend hanging off them, Romulus was the only other guy. Romulus had been a bit quiet and reserved at first but the more time that he and Harry spent together the more he started to open up.

Harry found that he rather liked Romulus:- he was funny, they both liked some kind of sport (although Harry's first love would always be Quiddich) and he found that the werewolf was surprisingly easy to talk to. Harry also found himself wanting to spend more time with Romulus and even wanting to spend some time alone with him.

Harry couldn't quite put his finger on what it was; he had never been interested in guys before (although, aside from Cho, he had never really been interested in anyone that way before) but there was just something about Romulus. He was insanely good looking (any idiot could see that), he was easy to talk to and every time they touched Harry felt a strange sensation heating his freezing cold skin. If what was written in the books that Fred and George stole from Katie and Alicia after Quiddich practice were anything to go by then he was falling for Romulus and pretty damn quickly.

As soon as Harry realised this he had immediately dismissed the idea. No matter what Harry felt Romulus was a werewolf and he was a vampire:- there was no way that the two of them could be together. Harry wasn't bothered about the whole vampires verses werewolves thing and Draculaura and her parents were pretty liberal about it all but Romulus was a different issue. Romulus had made it perfectly clear when they had first met that he wasn't fond of vampires and, by the sound of it, his parents weren't too crazy about them either. The only thing Harry could do was try to ignore his feelings and carry on as normal.

That was going to be easier said than done, Harry realised, when he found himself dragged to the mall on Saturday afternoon with Draculaura and her friends. He had expected another afternoon of being dragged around shops and put in a number of ridiculous outfits again, however when he arrived he found Clawd, Romulus, Duce and Gill waiting for them.

"Hey dudes!" Duce exclaimed. "You all ready to party?" He wrapped his arms around Cleo's waist as the two groups met and gave her a squeeze.

"Oh my Ra, Duce!" Cleo exclaimed trying to push him away. "Do you always have to be such a party monster all the time?"

"Just livening the place up, babe." the gorgon grinned shrugging.

"Clawd!" Draculaura screamed throwing her arms around her boyfriend's waist, her head only just reaching his chest.

"Hey Draculaura." He said wrapping his arms around the tiny girl. Gill said nothing but went over to Lagoona and hugged her. Harry stood and watched as the boys paired off with their respective girls and the other girls began fawning over a huge window display of handbags. He smiled but at the same time felt as if he was intruding on a private group. In a way he supposed he was; he was the newcomer in an already established group. He, Ron and Hermione had always kept to themselves rather than socialising with others; although that may have been because they were usually doing something that they shouldn't have been and didn't want anyone to find out and tell one of the teachers. As Harry continued to watch he felt someone appear at his shoulder.

"Gross, isn't it?" Romulus' voice said.

"What?" Harry asked breaking out of his thoughts and turning to face the werewolf.

"Clawd and Draculaura." Romulus told him gesturing to the canoodling pair. "Their PDA is getting a bit over the top don't you think?"

"A little bit." Harry laughed as Draculaura flung her arms around Clawd once again.

"Duce and Cleo are just as bad." Romulus added as the two of them watched the gorgon continued to try to pull Cleo against his body while she tried to push him away.

"He does look a little bit like a rapist doing that, doesn't he." Harry laughed again. He wouldn't be surprised if Duce ended up on some kind of register if he carried on like that.

"Hey," Romulus said nudging Harry's shoulder slightly. "shall we get out of here?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well those guys are all over each other," Romulus said indicating the three couples. "and those guys are in shopping mode," he added indicating the rest of the girls. "they won't miss us in the slightest. We could go do something more fun that won't make you feel like you've been neutered afterward."

"And I thought you didn't hang out with vampires." Harry teased grinning.

"Well," Romulus grinned back, shrugging. "out of the fawning couples and the girls squealing over shoes you're the one I'd rather spend my Saturday afternoon with."

"In the nicest way possible." Harry grinned again.

"Yeah." Romulus replied. "So do you want to go; I'm telling you, they won't miss us."

"They do seem to be off in their own little worlds, don't they?" Harry observed looking over at the girls now crowding around a perfume stand spraying each other with numerous different scents.

"That's one way of saying they're ignoring us." Romulus chuckled.

"Well if you want to put it like that." Harry laughed. He jumped slightly as he suddenly felt a hand slip around the top of his arm and turned to see Romulus grinning at him.

"Come on, let's go." he said and dragged Harry around the corner and away from the rest of the group.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked as Romulus continued to drag him past more and more shops and further away from their friends.

"Anywhere!" Romulus grinned back at him.

"You know you're crazy right?" Harry stated laughing as much as his lungs, which were beginning to hurt from running, would allow at Romulus' sudden change in personality.

The usually stoic werewolf seemed much more at ease; he seemed much happier as well. Harry didn't know whether it was because he wasn't at school or because he was away from the makeup obsessed and the nauseating couples, which would make anyone sick. Maybe (and there was a tiny part of Harry that hoped this was true) he was so happy and carefree because he was alone with Harry.

Harry immediately dismissed this idea. Once again he couldn't rationalise any possible way that he and Romulus could be together; his parents wouldn't allow it for one thing and he highly doubted that the Dursleys would be over the moon if he brought home a male werewolf for a partner. On the other hand Romulus did seem to be warming up to him – he had dragged Harry off on his own after all. Then again that may be because he was trying to save the only other male in their group who still had his testicles and keep him away from 'the makeup patrol' or Harry could be over thinking this way too much.

Suddenly Romulus skidded to a halt and Harry crashed into him. Romulus had been running so fast that when Harry crashed into him he knocked Romulus to the ground, landing on top of him. Harry froze, blushing furiously, as he felt one of Romulus' hands come to rest lazily on his hip. He pushed himself up slightly and looked down at Romulus. The werewolf smirked up at him and his heart began to hammer feverishly against his ribs.

"You're looking a little flushed there, vampire," Romulus smirked. "you alright?"

"Um yeah…" Harry panted. "I'm fine, just ran too much." If he had been able to actually say anything more eloquent he would have been adamant that the panting was because of the run, not because he could feel every muscle in Romulus' chest rub against his as they both tried to catch their breath. However words were currently escaping him so he just left it at that.

"Sure you are." Romulus chuckled. He shifted slightly and Harry practically jumped to his feet. Romulus laughed and heaved himself up as well.

"So, uh, what do you want to do now?" Harry asked trying to change the subject. Romulus shrugged.

"Anything you want." he stated. "You hungry?" Harry nodded. "I know a place that does really good rare steak.

"Sounds good." Harry replied smiling shyly even though his stomach practically roared at the prospect of finally having some blood.

"Follow me then." Romulus grinned and he began walking back the way they had come.

"Why did you make me run all the way out here to make me walk back the way we just came?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"For fun." Romulus shrugged grinning. "Also if I'd have known you wanted food I would have stopped sooner. And," he added after a pause. "you're a vampire; you can run really fast so why are you complaining?"

"Just because I can run really fast doesn't mean I necessarily want to." Harry pouted. Romulus laughed and gave his hair a ruffle.

"I won't make you run as far next time then." he stated. "You've got to admit it was rather fun though."

"You know you're crazy right?" Harry stated and Romulus just continued to grin. "Hey Romulus?" Harry began tentatively after a short pause.

"Mmm?" Romulus' response came out more as a non-committal sound rather than an actual word. "Why did you drag me all the way out here by myself?" Harry asked. Romulus shrugged again.

"Cause I find you easier to talk to than 'the shoe squad'." he replied.

"Yeah but you could have just gone off on your own," Harry stated. "you didn't have to bring me with you."

"I couldn't imagine you wanted to be dragged around clothes shops either, what's your point?"

"Nothing I guess." Harry mumbled. "Just wondered, that's all."

"I didn't really think that much about it," Romulus stated. "but, truth be told, I kind of like hanging out with you."

"Huh?" Harry asked stopping and turning to look at Romulus; had he just heard that right? Had Romulus actually just said that he liked spending time with him?

"I like hanging out with you." Romulus repeated. "You're easy to talk to, you've actually got a brain that isn't filled with fashion and you make me laugh – at you, of course, not with you. You're just different from anyone else I've ever met."

"But in a good way, right?" Harry asked a little unsure. Romulus laughed and ruffled Harry's hair again.

"Of course in a good way." he said. "I guess I just quite like you, that's all."

"Oh ok," Harry swallowed, his face practically on fire by this point. His head was swimming with thoughts; when Romulus said he liked him did he mean as just a friend or as more than that? He had to find out and he could only think of one way to do that. He took a deep breath, if he was going to make his own confession about liking Romulus then now was definitely the time to do it. "then I guess I quite like you too."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth Harry closed his eyes in frustrated embarrassment and internally slapped the palm on his hand to his forehead and dragged it down his face. He could have put that so much better; any variation on it would have been better. Hell even 'hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but I'm in love with you and apparently I'm gay' would have been better…although highly more embarrassing. He could have put his heartfelt confession of love slightly more eloquently but then again he had just echoed what Romulus had said so he could just palm it off as that and work on it some more for the next time. Romulus smiled and ruffled Harry's hair again.

"You're so damn cute." the werewolf said softly shifting his hand slightly so that he was cupping the back of Harry's neck and Harry looked up into his icy blue eyes. He moved slightly closer and Harry was sure that all the blood in his body was now rushing straight to his face.

"Um Romulus…" Harry began, his voice cracking slightly. "what are you doing?"

"Don't worry," Romulus replied grinning slightly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Harry gulped as Romulus' face inched closer towards his until their noses were brushing. It was only at this point that Harry allowed his eyes to slide closed. His breathing halted completely as he felt Romulus press his lips gently against his. Harry's senses ignited at the contact; he could hear both his and Romulus' heartbeats thundering in his ears and beginning to beat in synchronicity, he was overpowered by the earthy forest smell that he associated with werewolves plus a smell that he could only describe as just purely Romulus and he could feel every slight change in pressure of the lips on his reverberating through his entire body.

Once he had gotten over the initial shock of the fact that the boy he thought hated him was kissing him Harry began to respond to Romulus' touch. He began to kiss back and ran his hands up the other's side, across his chest and up to rest around his neck. Harry felt a slight tugging on his hair and he gasped softly. As his lips parted Romulus took the opportunity to slip his tongue into Harry's mouth and they began a dance for dominance that Romulus quickly won.

He began exploring every curve and contour of Harry's mouth as the hand that wasn't embedded in Harry's hair began to slowly make its way down his spine in a way that made Harry shiver. A small whimper escaped Harry's throat as Romulus' tongue stroked the roof of his mouth and he began lazily winding his fingers in the werewolf's soft brown hair. He was vaguely aware of the fact that the two of them were in a crowded shopping mall, in the middle of the day and, as Romulus's hand slipped down to rest on his hip, he realised that he didn't care – he could quite happily stand there and do this all day. However all too soon for Harry's liking Romulus pulled away and a small whine of protest slipped passed his slightly swollen lips.

"Romulus I…" Harry breathed not entirely sure what he was going to say. That had been the most amazing kiss Harry had ever experienced (and considering his experience to date consisted of a drunken sloppy tongue sandwich with Seamus and a tearful – on her part – awkward smooch with Cho Chang that wasn't that much to go by).

"Harry…" Romulus started and Harry was surprised to notice that this was possibly the first time Romulus had called him by his first name rather than just 'vampire'. He looked like he was going to continue when a loud barking voice made them both snap out of their daze.

"Hey Romulus!" the voice called. Harry looked over Romulus' shoulder to see a werewolf much stockier than either Romulus or Clawd walking towards them. "Long time no see." the werewolf said clapping Romulus on the shoulder when he reached them.

"Hey Fang." Romulus replied sheepishly. "How have you been?"

"Good." Fang replied. "Just been practicing on the Casketball court, hoping to get some more ladies to join the 'Fang-Tastic Fan Club'."

"Is that still going on?" Romulus grinned through a raised eyebrow. "I thought you had to disband that after the girls couldn't stop fighting over which one of them you were going to take to the prom." Fang waved his hand casually.

"Man you know I just keep them all hanging on the sly." he smirked. "You tell each one they're your world and they're like putty in your hands bro."

"Still the lady's man I see, Fang." Romulus said shaking his head and grinning. Every time one of them said Fang's name Harry couldn't help but picture the dopy bloodhound of Hagrid's with the same name. This Fang, however, didn't seem anywhere near as friendly; in fact he seemed like a bit of an arse.

"Well, what can I say? If you've got it then you might as well flaunt it." the other werewolf smirked shrugging. Harry rolled his eyes, this guy was definitely a Grade A douchebag. "But what about you?" Fang asked. "Transferring to Monster High; bit of a change of scene."

"Something like that, yeah." Romulus replied shuffling a little awkwardly. "No, it's great; I've got the Casketball team – going to trash your butts in the next inter-schools tournament – and they're not too far ahead of us with homework and stuff so I caught up pretty quickly."

"Sweet man," Fang grinned. "but you'll never beat us at Casketball; we've got the best team around."

"That was when I was the captain." Romulus grinned. "Plus we've got some new blood on the team." he added putting his arm around Harry's shoulder and giving him a small shove forward. Fang looked him up and down before sniffing disdainfully.

"Not much for standards, you new school." He commented. "Making the likes of us team up with vampires."

"Fang." Romulus half cautioned. Harry noticed the half-hearted tone in his voice; it was almost as if he didn't care whether Fang insulted Harry or not.

"Why are you even hanging out with him anyway?" Fang asked ignoring Romulus' caution and acting as if Harry wasn't there altogether.

"We got separated from the rest of our team," Romulus lied shifting awkwardly. "it's not like we're hanging out for real or anything."

"That's good." Fang sighed with relief theatrically. "Imagine how bad your rep would be if ghouls found out you'd been seen hanging out with a blood sucker."

"Yeah." Romulus laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. For a moment Harry seriously considered pointing out the contrary but he highly doubted that Fang would listen to a word he said much less actually believe him.

"Hey the rest of the Crescent Moon team and Fearleaders are here so why don't you ditch the leach and come say hi." Fang said flinging an arm around Romulus' shoulder and steering him away.

Harry watched as the two werewolves walked away. His heart sank as he saw Romulus turn and give him a half-hearted apologetic shrug:- evidently he wasn't going to protest and was just going to allow himself to be dragged away. Once they had rounded a corner and disappeared from sight Harry looked around in desperation. Here he was, on his own, in the middle of a mall filled with shops that all looked the same in a town he had no idea where anything was with no idea how to find Draculaura the rest of his friends.

It was official; Harry Potter was well and truly screwed.

Three weeks later and Romulus and Harry hadn't said a word to each other. After caving into peer pressure Romulus had left Harry to his own devices while he went to hang out with his old school friends. Harry, stuck on his own in an unfamiliar town had wondered around until he finally found an i-Coffin shop. He had told the pimply looking Cyclops behind the desk that he was lost and needed to get in touch with his relative so he could get back home.

The Cyclops had search on his computer for Draculaura's details, sighing a lot as he did so as if Harry's problem was a massive inconvenience to him. Eventually he had pulled up her number and given Harry an ancient looking handset to call her on. Draculaura had been beside herself with worry when Harry called and told him to stay where he was and she'd be right over. Having not wanted to cause problems when she asked, Harry had told her that he had lost Romulus in a crowd of incredibly slow moving zombies and she hadn't questioned it although Clawd had eyes him rather suspiciously, almost as if he knew that he was lying.

The next time Harry had seen Romulus at school he had half expected (and hoped) that the werewolf would approach him and apologise for running off and leaving him but he didn't. As soon as he locked eyes with Harry he had immediately looked away and darted off at the first available chance he got. He avoided him at Casketball practise and said virtually nothing to him, accept the occasional 'pass the scalpel' in class. Well if he wasn't going to apologise then Harry wasn't going to go snivelling back like some pathetic little flobberworm – he was way too stubborn for that.

Clawd noticed that the two weren't talking as much as they had been and asked Harry what was wrong. As nonchalantly as possible Harry had said that he was busy concentrating on his studies and just didn't have as much time to talk with him anymore, which was half true. Dumbledore had sent him a multitude of owls containing information about Voldemort, the prophesy and these things called Horcruxes that he had created. Harry didn't really understand what they were but it sounded nasty. Harry was glad for all this information, for one thing it would be a great help when he did finally have to face Voldemort and for another it kept his mind occupied from thoughts of Romulus.

One afternoon Harry was walking towards the library to do some potions work Dumbledore had sent after another virtually silent lesson with Romulus. Draculaura and the girls had asked if he wanted to go shopping with them but after seeing the wicked gleam in Cleo's eye he had respectfully declined telling them he had some homework from Hogwarts to be getting on with in favour of her trying to shove him in a dress again.

It wasn't a total lie, Harry thought, Dumbledore had sent him some more prophesy related parchment for him to pour over along with the potions homework. Although it was more that he didn't want yet another afternoon of Cleo making snide comments at his experience. He turned down another corner, which he was sure (at least he felt he should have been by now) led to the library and found himself walking slap bang into something large. Harry looked up, rubbing his head, and saw to his horror the monster he had walked into.

"Watch where you're going Pipsqueak!" the Minotaur snarled, smoke billowing from his nostrils.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't realise anyone was standing there." Harry began apologising profusely. For all the people for him to walk into he had to go and collide with Manny Taur: Monster High's resident bully. Duce had told him to stay away from Manny if he could and Abbey had confirmed it saying he was 'like angry baby yak who get into vodka jug instead of milk.' Harry didn't particularly understand that metaphor but decided to keep his distance all the same.

"Well you want get some better glasses, four eyes." Manny taunted.

"Ok." Harry replied monotonously, not wanted to give Manny any other reason to give him a hard time. If there was one thing his time at Hogwarts had taught him it was to keep his head down and stay out of trouble…not that he had ever managed to actually do that at his previous school though. He made to weave round the Minotaur but felt a hand slam into his chest and stop him.

"And where do you think you're going?" Manny growled.

"To the library?" Harry knew it was ridiculous to turn his statement into a question and at Hogwarts he would have just hexed the bastard and be done with it but he couldn't do that here and Manny was about three times the size of him so a physical fight was out.

"Did I say you could go anywhere?" Manny growled again. There were three answers that Harry could give to this question (no, why and are you damaged in some way?) and all of them would result in him getting punched in the face so he simply said nothing. "Hey!" Manny yelled grabbing Harry's collar and slamming him into a row of lockers behind him. "I'm talking to you, punk!"

"Hey!" a voice yelled from down the corridor as Harry slipped his hand into his bag and firmly grasped his wand. When he had transferred to Monster High Dumbledore had made him promise not to use magic but Harry still carried his wand around, kind of like a security blanket, you know, just in case. Both he and Manny turned in the direction of the voice to see Romulus marching angrily towards them.

"What do you want?" Manny snapped glaring at the advancing werewolf.

"Leave him alone!" Romulus snarled.

"You what?" Manny asked although he knew perfectly well what Romulus had said.

"I said leave him alone!" Romulus snarled again.

"You gonna make me, Wolf Boy?" Manny sneered. Romulus growled and grabbed the front of Manny's shirt, pulled him off Harry and threw him across the corridor. Manny whirled round, ready to charge, while Romulus jumped, protectively, in front of Harry.

"Touch him again and you're dead." Romulus growled.

Harry watched the two monsters square up against each other and, more than anything else, he found himself overcome with anger. He knew (well, assumed after listening to Hermione and Ginny's conversations) that you were supposed to feel some sense of loving gratitude when the object of your affection defended you honour but he found it really aggravating. Where was this three weeks ago? This was the first time Romulus had been near him for longer than a second since their run in with Fang.

"I'd like to see you try!" Manny scoffed and the sound of his voice almost reminded Harry that he was still there.

"Bring it on!" Romulus growled and something inside Harry snapped.

"Oh so you're talking to me now, are you?" he said sarcastically, loudly enough so that Romulus would hear.

"What?" the werewolf asked turning to face him, also ignoring the Minotaur.

"So I do exist?" Harry asked in the same sarcastic tone. "I was beginning to think I was invisible; oh wait no, that's just my vampire reflection."

"What are you talking about?" Romulus asked. He seemed genuinely confused why Harry was so angry, as if the last three weeks hadn't happened.

"You haven't spoken to me for three weeks!" Harry cried. "You left me, on my own after dragging me away from our friends, in a town I don't know to go off with your werewolf buddies and pretend that I don't exist!"

"Harry is this really the time?" Romulus asked casting an embarrassed glance in Manny's direction who was watching the exchange in utter bewilderment.

"Yes it bloody well is!" Harry shouted. "Before you disappear again because you seem to be really good at that! I'm tired of people pretending I don't exist, Romulus, I had whole childhood of that, so don't act like we're friends one minute and then blank me for three weeks the next."

"Look I'm sorry, all right!" Romulus yelled. "But what was I supposed to do?"

"You could have actually said we were friends. You could have said we needed to get back to the others. You could have done anything aside from leave me standing on my own in the middle of a mall!" Harry yelled back.

"Ok, I guess I could have…" Romulus began.

"And then," Harry cut him off, still yelling and still completely ignoring Manny. "I thought you'd at least have the common decency to come and apologise to me when you saw me on Monday but you didn't!"

"Well you haven't spoken to me for three weeks either." Romulus retorted but Harry could tell by the look on his face that even he thought it was a lame excuse.

"Because I shouldn't have to!" Harry cried. "You were the one who should have manned up and apologised rather than avoiding me for ages. Then you come swooping in like some kind of hero when you think I'm in trouble when I'm perfectly capable of handling myself."

"How was I supposed to know that?" Romulus asked. "I mean look at him," he added gesturing towards Manny. "he's huge!"

"Hey!" Manny protested.

"No offence." Romulus said, waving Manny off.

"I've fought bigger, tougher, scarier things at my old school and I survived." Harry shot back. "I'm not made of glass, Romulus, in fact I'm a vampire now so I'm a lot stronger and I won't get hurt like I did back then."

"I'm sorry I just saw you about to get pummelled so stepped in." Romulus explained.

"But I didn't need you too!" Harry exclaimed. "I can handle this jerk on my own."

"Hey!" Manny said again indignantly.

"No offence." Harry said although he didn't really mean it.

"Do you know what? Fine!" Romulus shouted beginning to get angry. "The next time you're in trouble I'm not going to be the one who comes to your rescue."

"No you run off to your werewolf buddies; you're good at that." Harry retorted.

"I said I was sorry about that!" Romulus yelled.

"Three weeks later!" Harry yelled back.

"Hey!" Manny shouted making the two of them stop arguing and turn to glare at him.

"What?" they both growled in unison.

"I thought we were supposed to be fighting here." he stated indicating to himself and Harry.

"Oh would you just get lost!" Harry said, exasperated, gesturing in Manny's direction. Unfortunately Harry had forgotten that he still had a tight grasp on his wand and as he gestured he flicked his wand and in a flash the Minotaur disappeared.

Harry stared, eyes wide, at the now empty space where Manny had been standing in confusion and horror. How in the name of Merlin's man-breasts had he just done that? He hadn't cast any spells, hell, he hadn't even remembered that he was holding his wand never mind actually been thinking about using it. It must have been something to do with him now being a vampire, there was no other explanation for it and Dumbledore had said that his vampire qualities would make him a more powerful wizard. Harry couldn't for the life of him have explained how it worked though.

"Harry what did you do?" Romulus asked finally finding his voice and bringing Harry back to reality.

"I didn't do anything!" Harry snapped defensively.

"Well you must have done!" the werewolf cried in exasperation. "He was there and now he's not and you were the one who told him to get lost."

"That doesn't mean I did anything!" Harry practically shouted back. Not strictly true but Harry was going to fight anything to maintain his innocence.

"Then why are you carrying that thing around with you?" Romulus asked pointing at Harry's wand. "That…what the heck is that anyway?"

"It's nothing." Harry said stuffing the wand back into his bag.

"There were sparks coming out of it!" Romulus yelled. "That's not nothing! Why won't you just tell me?"

"Because it's none of your business!" Harry yelled squaring up to Romulus. "You've been ignoring me for three weeks!"

"You can't keep blaming me for that." Romulus practically growled. "It's not as if I had much of a choice!"

"Oh yeah because he threatened you and made you go with him." Harry shot back sarcastically.

"Why am I even trying to reason with you on this?!" Romulus cried. "I should have just…"

"Should have just what Romulus?" Harry cut him off. "What are you going to do?"

"This." Romulus growled before grabbing a handful of Harry's hair and crashing their lips together. Harry's eyes shot open as Romulus kissed him roughly.

Unlike their last kiss, which was tentative and sweet, this was angry, passionate and ignited a fire inside Harry that he had never felt before. Almost immediately Harry reacted and started kissing Romulus back, reaching up and grabbing fistfuls of his shirt. Romulus tugged harshly on his hair and Harry gasped in a sweet mixture of pleasure and pain and Romulus used that moment to slip his tongue passed his open lips.

As their tongues crashed against each other Romulus pushed Harry backwards, slamming him into the lockers. Harry whimpered into Romulus' mouth as his back collided with the cold, hard metal. All he could think about was Romulus' lips and the heat that was spreading throughout his entire body and fuelling his movements. He clutched the werewolves sides, desperately wanting to grab onto anything for fear that his knees would give out from underneath him if he didn't.

Tongues collided while lips and bodies mashed together, hands wandering and breath mingling. Harry's entire being was screaming at him to touch, taste, need everything that was Romulus and, judging by his movements, he seemed to feel the same way about Harry. His hands groped Harry's hair then his sides and down to his hips leaving a trail of tingling skin in their wake. They were so lost in each other they didn't break apart for air until the shrill ringing of the school bell brought them back to reality.

A second before the classroom doors opened and students began rushing past Harry and Romulus sprang apart. Harry immediately began fixing his rumpled clothes and flattening his tousled hair while Romulus straightened up his own dishevelled appearance. Romulus coughed, embarrassed, trying to seem composed again as a wave of students washed by them.

"We should go find Manny." he stated matter of factly.

"Yeah." Harry panted blushing profusely.

Manny, as it turned out, had ended up being transported into the swimming pool, floating three feet above the water. With nothing to keep him in the air he fell into the pool to be dragged out a few minutes later by Lagoona and Gill, shaken but basically unscathed. Harry had tried to talk to him and apologise but Manny had bolted off in the other direction as soon as he laid eyes on him so Harry had given up; Manny had been about to punch his face in, he wasn't going to lose sleep over it. He had also tried to talk to Romulus again and this had, this time, proved much more successful.

Having wanted to talk somewhere where they wouldn't be disturbed Romulus had told Harry to meet him outside school. Harry sat on the steps of the school's entrance waiting for the werewolf to arrive, trying to get his thoughts in order. When Romulus had kissed him it had set his entire body on fire, leaving him feeling tingly and light headed, and his response to Romulus' touch had been virtually instinctual. He liked Romulus a lot (despite being ignored by him for three weeks) and the way Romulus had kissed him and touched him made it pretty damn clear that he liked him too but still Harry was confused.

He had so much to consider in this situation; for starters there was the fact that Harry would be leaving Monster High at the end of the year to return to Hogwarts meaning that if they were going to continue their relationship (if Harry could even call it that) then it would have to be a long distance thing. There was also still so much that he and Romulus didn't know about each other. Aside from a few things outside of school about himself Harry had been more open about he had never told Romulus anything about the Voldemort dominated section of his life and he was pretty sure that if Romulus found out about it then he would run for the hills. Also the whole 'neither can live while the other survives' was likely to put strain on any relationship.

He sighed as these thoughts began to weigh on his mind before stiffening as he felt a hand come down hard on his shoulder. Harry almost jumped out of his skin and spun round to see a werewolf with long black hair practically growling down at him. Harry shuffled back a little in surprise but tried to hold his ground as the werewolf sat down next to him, he didn't want to seem afraid but he knew that he would be able to smell it anyway.

"Hello." Harry said, his voice coming out slightly higher than he would have liked it to.

"Harry Potter right?" the werewolf asked in a deep gravelly voice that held a slight Southern American twang.

"Um yeah," Harry said slowly. "and who are you?"

"Jacob," he replied flatly, no last name apparently. "but that's not important right now."

"Ok." Harry said, elongating the word as he stared at Jacob in confusion – surely the entire point of a having conversation was to at least let the person you're talking to know who you are, unless you're a serial murderer, Harry thought. "Why did you want to talk to me?"

"I want you to stay away from Romulus." Jacob stated flatly.

"Pardon?" Harry asked. Jacob had been so forward with his request that Harry wasn't sure if he had heard him correctly or not.

"I said I want you to stay away from Romulus." Jacob repeated a little irritably.

"Why?" Harry asked. He had never been particularly fond of people telling him what to do (he had lost count of the number of Hogwarts school rules he had broken, although he maintained they was all out of necessity) and this guy was just being a jerk.

"Let me put it simply," Jacob said as if were talking to a moron. "he doesn't need someone like you dragging him down."

"Someone like me?" Harry asked before it instantly dawned on him. "Oh a vampire."

"Like I said, Romulus doesn't need monsters like you hanging around." Jacob growled slightly.

"Surely that's for Romulus to decide." Harry replied glaring at Jacob. Jacob snorted derisively as he looked at Harry with disdain.

"I won't tell you again," he snarled getting to his feet. "stay away from him." He shot Harry a withering glare before stalking away. Harry let out the breath he didn't realise he had been holding, he'd never been threatened like that before. Sure, he had people threatening his life on an annually basis and he had lost count of the number of times Draco Malfoy had said the words 'my father will hear about this' but the way Jacob had spoken implied that if he caught Harry and Romulus together he would break him. What was bizarre was that Harry didn't feel scared in the slightest.

"Hey," a voice said from behind him and Harry looked round to see Romulus coming down the steps towards him. "are you ok?" he asked as he sat down next to him.

"I'm fine." Harry gave him a small smile. He didn't want to worry Romulus – there was no point considering that he wasn't worried. Also he didn't want Romulus to feel that he had to try and save him again like he had when he thought Manny was going to shove him in a locker.

"Are you sure? You look pale." Romulus observed.

"I'm a vampire; I always look pale." Harry replied rolling his eyes.

"Did I just see you talking to Jacob?" Romulus asked. Harry let out a soft laugh, of course Romulus had seen him and Jacob talking and evidently there was only so much small talk Romulus would allow himself to get through before jumping straight into what he really thought they needed to talk about.

"He came over to me," Harry said raising his hands a little in defence. "I was just sitting here, waiting for you."

"What did he say to you?" Romulus practically growled, instantly becoming protective again.

"He just told me to stay away from you or else." Harry said without thinking and as soon as the words were out of his mouth he instantly regretted it. He had been able to joke like that with Ron and Hermione because they were all so used to Harry's life being on the line but Romulus wasn't.

"Or else what?" Romulus snarled jumping to his feet to tear after Jacob and settle the matter with his fists. Harry grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled him back onto the step beside him.

"Sit down!" he said as Romulus landed on the concrete. "There was no 'or else' he just told me to stay away from you." Romulus was silent for a moment and Harry saw his expression change from intense anger to something unreadable.

"So what are you going to do?" Romulus finally asked and Harry noted the sad tone in his voice.

"What do you mean?" he asked perplexed.

"Well I don't want to see you get hurt so if you want I'll stay away from you." the werewolf told him.

"Why would I want you to do that?" Harry asked. "I said before that I liked you and I still mean it also we have classes together, we're both on the Casketball team and we have the same circle of friends."

"I still like you too and I'm not saying it wouldn't be difficult but if that's what you want I can work around it. I just don't want to see you get hurt or be the reason you get hurt." Romulus replied.

"What makes you think I'm going to get hurt?" Harry asked.

"Harry if Jacob has targeted you and you don't do what he tells you to then he will make you pay for it – he's dangerous." Romulus explained, his voice a little higher than usually. Evidently Jacob was the Alpha Male in this town despite how much Clawd and Romulus acted otherwise.

"To be honest he's the least of my worries." Harry muttered. "I've got much more dangerous people out to get me."

"Yeah you said that before," Romulus observed remembering Harry's comment about fighting things much bigger than Manny. "what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Harry sighed. If he was going to tell Romulus the truth about him – the whole truth about him – then now seemed like the perfect time to do it. He took a deep breath, preparing himself before looking up into Romulus's worried eyes.

"There's some stuff, about me, that you need to know." he said quietly.

Harry told Romulus everything; staring from the moment his parents were killed and Dumbledore sent him to live with the Durselys. He told him all about becoming a wizard ('So that's what that stick thing is' Romulus had said when he told him how he had accidentally sent Manny to the swimming pool) and everything that had happened to him since enrolling at Hogwarts. As Harry told his story it almost seemed as if he was commenting on someone else's life – so much strange and terrifying things had happened to him and that was just in the last five years!

Then Harry came to telling Romulus about the prophecy. Romulus had seemed to take everything Harry had told him (even the times when he'd nearly died, which had been quite a few to date) rather well but when Harry told him about the fact that either he or Voldemort has to die for the other to live his ears pricked up and his fur stood up on end.

"So your headmaster – this Dumbledore guy – is trying to find out a way to stop the prophecy?" Romulus asked.

"He's trying to find a way for me to kill Voldemort before he kills me." Harry explained. "I don't think this is the kind of thing that can be stopped or reversed or anything."

"So does it have to be you that kills him?"

"I guess so." Harry shrugged, he'd never really thought about it like that before. Not that he would ask someone else to kill Voldemort when he knew that his entire life had been leading up to the moment when he would take the life of the man who had killed his parents and tried to kill him so many times. "The prophesy isn't exactly clear on that front but as it's a 'neither can live while the other survives' thing I guess it would have to be me."

"And these Horcrux things?" Romulus asked. "What do they do?" Harry shrugged.

"As far as I can tell they house bits of his soul but I'm still going through all the stuff Dumbledore sent me on those so I know about as much as I've told you."

"And if you haven't destroyed them all?" Romulus asked.

"Then it will be that much harder when Voldemort finally gives up on waiting and comes looking for me." Harry replied.

"Wow." Romulus breathed not sure how to respond to that and Harry couldn't blame him – what did you say when someone told you that they were targeted by a murderous raging super stalker with enough magical power to demolish a city with one spell?

"So now you know everything." Harry stated. "That's why I'm not scared of bullies like Manny and I don't run for the hills when guys like Jacob try to threaten me."

"So what do you want to do?" Romulus asked.

"Well that's kind of up to you now." Harry stated. "I mean after what I've just told you I wouldn't blame you, or be at all surprised, if you wanted to stay as far away from me as possible." Romulus didn't say anything he just looked at Harry for a moment and in that moment Harry was sure that he was about to get up and walk away.

Not wanting to see when the werewolf walked away from him Harry closed his eyes and listened for the sound of footsteps leaving. The footsteps never came and he never felt the warmth of Romulus leave his side. Instead he felt a warm hand reach up to cup his cheek, a thumb running over his skin. Harry still didn't open his eyes until he felt Romulus' lips press softly against his. This kiss was chaste and loving and over much too quickly in Harry's opinion. He watched Romulus pull away slightly and smile at him.

"I'm not leaving your side," he told him. "no matter what." Harry's lips pulled up into a small smile.

"So no more ignoring me for three weeks?" he asked giving Romulus a playful smirk.

"Nope." he replied grinning before placing another sweet kiss on Harry's lips.

"And you're going to be seem with me in public?" he teased, pushing his luck slightly.

"A hoard of vampires couldn't keep me away." Romulus told him before kissing him again. "You, Harry Potter, are mine and I'm not letting you go."

It was official; Harry Potter – the new boy at Monster High – was dating Romulus. Draculaura had actually squealed with delight when she heard the news; as she said when Harry told her, she had always wanted a gay best friend. Harry felt a twinge of worry when she had thrown her arms around his neck and declared that they could talk about male celebrities they thought were cute and had turned to look pleadingly at Romulus, who had just shrugged and given him a look that clearly said 'she's your relative, you're on your own on this one, sorry'. Well he was no bloody help, Harry thought, and it was clear which one of them was going to be perceived as the 'guy' of the relationship.

The rest of Dracualura's friends had also taken the same approach as she had to Harry and Romulus' relationship – Harry was now an honorary girl and would be up for numerous discussions about boys, clothes and makeup (i.e. the conversations they'd already been having around him but expecting him to participate this time). In a way it was nice; after living with Dudley (a relatively manly – in some sense of the word – man) all his life Harry had been so worried about being accepted for choosing to date another guy. On the other hand it terrified him that he would have to participate in even more conversations about the Jaundice Brothers, Justin Biter and Harry Spookles from One Deadrection.

The news of his and Romulus' new relationship had caused a bit of a stir at school but that was more due to the fact that there was now another werewolf dating a vampire although Clawd kept reminding Romulus that he and Draculaura had been the first werewolf/vampire couple. To this Romulus just rolled his eyes and ruffled Harry's hair, which seemed to be the main way he chose to show his affection in public, not that Harry minded in the slightest. He was already breaching new territory by dating a werewolf and a man, he didn't think he could take the embarrassment of having people watching him and Romulus kissing in the corridors.

One afternoon Harry and Draculaura were walking through the corridors to the gymnasium; Harry had Casketball practice before a match against another school and Draculaura was going to cheer them on along with the rest of the Fearleading Squad. She was happily chatting about everything and nothing while Harry listened when Harry heard a familiar voice calling his name. He turned and his eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw Ron and Hermione running down the corridor towards him. Hermione looked flushed, her bushy hair looking even wilder than Harry remembered it and Ron kept casting furtive glances over his shoulder as if expecting something to jump out the walls at him.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed when the two of them finally reached himself and Draculaura. "We've been looking for you everywhere!"

"Why? What's happened?" Harry asked immediately on edge, his hand slipping into his bag to grip his wand.

"What do you mean what's happened?" she asked looking confused. "We haven't heard from you in months! At first we thought the Dursleys had kept you from coming back to school so we went to talk to Dumbledore and he said you were on some kind of student exchange for a year. We tried writing to you but we didn't know where to send the letters so finally we decided to come and find you ourselves, didn't we?" she finished turning to Ron.

"It's weird here, isn't it?" Ron said still looking around and not listening to a word she was saying.

"No more so than Hogwarts." Harry muttered defensively. "So how did you find me in the end?" he asked slightly louder.

"We asked Dumbledore for the name of the school you were at and Hermione looked it up on the interweb thingy." Ron told him.

"The internet." Hermione corrected.

"So we thought we'd come down and surprise you seeing as we hadn't had a chance to write or talk properly." Ron finished beaming. Harry stared at their excited faces for a moment before grinning at them himself. Only these two would come up with a plan this ridiculous and put it into action without actually telling him about any of it. He was so overcome with happiness and gratitude at the effort they had put in to finding him he flung his arms around both of them and pulled them both into a hug.

"God it's good to see you two." he sighed as he tightened his grip on them before pulling away. He was about to launch into a multitude of questions about Hogwarts and everyone there when Hermione coughed pointedly and raised her eyebrows in Draculaura's direction. "Oh yeah," Harry said, suddenly remembering that she was there. "Ron, Hermione this is Dracualura, a distant relative of mine, Dracualura these are Ron and Hermione, my best friends from my old school."

"It's nice to meet you." Hermione smiled.

"Hi." Ron said waving awkwardly. Dracualura beamed at them and jumped on first Hermione then Ron giving them each a tight hug.

"It's so great to meet you both," she squealed. "Harry's told me so much about you both and you sound like totes amazing people."

"What does totes mean?" Ron whispered as Draculaura began styling Hermione's bushy hair.

"I have no idea." Harry whispered back.

"I better get to Fearleading practise," Draculaura piped up suddenly. "I'll tell them you'll be in in a sec Harry." she stated.

"Thanks." Harry smiled at her. He knew she was giving him the chance to catch up with his friends in private.

"It was nice to meet you both." she smiled and waved at Ron and Hermione.

"Yes, hopefully we'll see you again soon." Hermione smiled back as Draculaura tottered into the gymnasium. Once the door had closed she then turned to Harry. "Dumbledore told us what happened…"

"Yeah, since when did you become a vampire?" Ron asked cutting her off. "I mean it's not like you weren't weird enough without this as well."

"Ronald!" Hermione chided, giving him a clip round the ears.

"What?" Ron asked rubbing the back of his head and glaring at her. "I'm just saying."

"Well don't." Hermione snapped. "I'm sure Harry's having enough trouble adjusting to it without you being insensitive."

"I'm not being insensitive!" Ron snapped.

"It's not that bad really." Harry interjected before they started bickering. "I've just about gotten used to the speed, the strength and the not having a reflection." he added laughing.

"So how did it happen?" Hermione asked. "Dumbledore never really explained it."

"Did you get bitten by a sexy vampire?" Ron asked wiggling his eyebrows.

"No," Harry laughed as Hermione smacked him again. "there was this curse placed on my family and when the first born male of every other generation reached sixteen they would be turned into a vampire."

"And that just happened to be you?" Ron asked and Harry nodded. Ron hooted with laughter and clapped Harry on the back. "Oh mate, it only happens to you doesn't it!"

"This is serious Ronald!" Hermione snapped. "This is a big change for Harry, not to mention everything that's going on with Voldemort and the prophecy."

"Has Dumbledore told you any more about that?" Ron asked.

"He's been sending me updates every so often and I think I know what I have to do." Harry replied shrugging. "I guess he'll get in contact with me when he needs me to do something." Ron and Hermione shared a slightly awkward look.

"Well that is sort of the reason we're here…" Hermione began.

"Not that we didn't want to come and see you mate." Ron interjected and Harry chuckled. Of course Dumbledore had asked Hermione and Ron to come and find him, although then again if he was sending them to tell him something then it was probably the kind of thing that he couldn't put in a letter.

"So what did he tell you?" Harry asked.

"He needs you to come back to Hogwarts." Hermione stated.

"Has Voldemort made his move then?"

"Not that he's told us," Hermione replied. "but I suppose that's something that he would only discuss with you."

"He just told us that when we came to see you we needed to tell you to come back." Ron added. Harry sighed, he had just gotten used to life at Monster High and not to mention starting up his relationship with Romulus and now he was going to be thrust back into his insane life where people were constantly trying to kill him.

"When does he want me back?" he asked.

"He just said as soon as possible." Hermione told him. Harry opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by the heavy clanging of the gymnasium doors and he turned to see Romulus. Harry's eyes widened a little – how on earth was he going to explain this to Ron and Hermione? He guessed that they wouldn't understand the whole vampires verses werewolves thing but they may be a little bit surprised to discover that Harry was now seeking for a different Quidditch team.

"Hey Harry are you coming in?" Romulus asked before cocking his head as he saw the look on Harry's face. "Harry are you ok?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded smiling at him. Romulus narrowed his eyes and Harry was sure that he still had the wide eyed expression of terror on his face.

"Draculaura said you were…" Romulus began before his gaze fell on Ron and Hermione standing behind Harry. "Hi, who are you guys?"

"Um Romulus these are my best friends Ron and Hermione." Harry said.

"We're from Harry's other school." Hermione explained.

"I'm Romulus," he introduced himself extending his hand to first Hermione and then Ron. "Harry's boyfriend." Harry saw Hermione falter slightly and Ron's ears turn slightly pink and he waited for one of them to say something – anything – to alleviate this slightly awkward silence.

"So…" Hermione began as she looked between Harry and Romulus. "how did you two meet?" Romulus raised an eyebrow at her and Harry could practically see her internally slapping herself in the face for her stupidity.

"I know Draculaura's boyfriend Clawd." Romulus stated, answer the question Hermione had probably been trying to ask. Harry looked over at Ron. He could see the cogs turning (albeit rather slowly) in his friend's head before he finally opened his mouth.

"Are you a werewolf?" he asked.

"What of it?" Romulus asked in prickly defence.

"You just don't look like any werewolf I've ever seen before." he stated.

"Ron!" Hermione hissed hitting him on the arm.

"Well he doesn't!" Ron cried rubbing the top of his arm. "Harry, back me up, he looks totally different to Lupin."

"He does have a point Hermione." Harry replied shuffling a little.

"Who's Lupin?" Romulus asked.

"One of our old teachers." Hermione explained. "He's a werewolf too."

"I did tell you about him." Harry stated.

"And he's only in his werewolf form during the Full Moon." Hermione continued. "The rest of the time he looks like a…er human." Harry heard the distinct pause where Hermione had been about to say 'normal' but had stopped herself just in time before she offended Romulus. As she and Romulus began discussing the number of reasons why he was in his werewolf form the entire time Ron sidled up to Harry.

"So…" Ron began awkwardly.

"So…" Harry copied, equally as awkwardly.

"So was Cho really that bad a kisser that you've started snogging boys?" Ron asked after a short pause. Harry laughed loudly making Hermione and Romulus turn to stare at them in shock before he waved them off and they continued their conversation.

"No she wasn't that bad." he stated. "And it's not all boys, it's just a boy."

"Just him?" Ron asked.

"Yeah that is how it works when you like someone." Harry stated. "You tend to like just them; you know like Bill and Fleur."

"I guess so." Ron replied slowly, thinking it through. "So does he know about the whole Voldemort trying to kill you all your life, prophecy thing?" he asked after a pause.

"Yeah I told him about a week ago." Harry told him.

"How did he take it?"

"Surprisingly well actually." Harry replied. "I mean he was a bit freaked out but he didn't leave or anything so I'm counting that as a bonus."

"Good for you then, mate." Ron said.

"Seriously?" Harry asked a little surprised – he had expected Ron to say something or make a joke at the very least.

"Yeah," Ron replied. "I mean if he makes you happy and he isn't totally put off by the whole Voldemort thing then you should go for it."

"Thanks." Harry smiled back.

"Besides," Ron continued after a pause. "saves more cute girls for me." Harry just rolled his eyes and looked over at Romulus who, at that moment, turned to look at him and gave him an encouraging smile. Harry felt his heart jump slightly and his ears turn a little pink.

Ron and Hermione's impromptu visit that Harry had originally thought would only been a couple of days turned into the entire Hogwarts school holiday. Unfortunately Monster High wasn't on the same school calendar so Harry still had to go to classes but Ron and Hermione were able to amuse themselves while he was in class and the girls seemed to love Hermione. Draculaura and the rest of them loved having an actual girl to dress up and talk about clothes and makeup with. Ron seemed to get along well with Clawd and the rest of the guys – he had even started playing Casketball with them on occasion.

It made Harry happy to have his old friends with him and it also made him happy to have them getting on so well with his new friends. His life, as it stood at this point, was going well; he had all his friends around him, he had pretty much learnt how to control his vampire powers (he still sizzled when he went out in the sun without an umbrella but he didn't crush things just by picking them up anymore), he wasn't currently on the hit list on anyone new and he's relationship with Romulus was still in that stage where they could be around their friends without nauseating them completely.

Harry sighed contentedly as he made his way to the school entrance to meet Ron, Hermione, Romulus and the others. After Casketball practise he had realised that he had left his homework in the changing rooms and had gone to retrieve it, telling the others he'd meet them outside. Harry had found he rather liked walking around the school when it was empty – it felt a lot calmer than when the corridors were full of crowds of Zombies wandering round. He rounded a corner and saw a group of well-built werewolf boys (that he was pretty sure were all members of Jacob's pack) standing at the end of the corridor leaning against the wall with their arms folded.

As he walked passed, a couple of them immediately pushed themselves off the wall and began to follow him. Noticing this Harry picked up his pace, wanting to put as much distance between himself and this entire pack that now seemed to be following him. He turned another corner and found his way barred by more members of the pack, Jacob standing at the front glaring at him menacingly. He turned away from them, knowing that he was going in completely the wrong direction to get out of the school but he knew that if he walked through the pack then they would immediately pounce on him and pound him into the ground.

Harry glanced over his shoulder, the entire pack was now following him (Harry had never realised that there were this many werewolves at Monster High before). He was practically running now as he tried to escape the pack of werewolves who were no longer disguising the fact that they were following him. Harry turned to look where he was going and, to his horror, discovered that he was coming towards a wall of lockers. He cast a quick glance around himself; there were no windows, no doors and no other means for him to escape the advancing pack. He reached the lockers and turned, pressing himself up against them for some form of protection, staring at the werewolf pack in front of him.

"I thought I told you to stay away." Jacob growled glaring at Harry, his eyes wild and dangerous. Harry gulped and cast another quick glance around, looking for any way of escape. Jacob strode towards him and grabbed the front of Harry's shirt. "Didn't I tell you to stay away from him?" he snarled pulling Harry close to his face so Harry could practically see his own reflection glinting off Jacob's fangs.

"You did." Harry replied, his voice coming out rather horse. He may have told Romulus that he wasn't afraid of Jacob (and he wasn't) but when faced with an entire pack of werewolves who looked like they were going to beat the living dead out of him, that was another matter.

"I told you what would happen if you didn't take the warning, didn't I?" Jacob asked tightening his grip on Harry's shirt and pressing him into the lockers behind him.

"Not really." Harry replied more cockily than he felt at that moment in time. If he could only make Jacob believe that he wasn't scared of being cornered by every werewolf bar two in the school but he was pretty sure that was impossible.

"Well the implication was there, wasn't it?" Jacob snarled pulling Harry off the lockers momentarily only to slam him back against the metal. Harry winced but made no other noise. "So why didn't you take the warning like a good little blood sucker and stay away." Before Harry could make some kind of witty retort one of the werewolves at the end of the corridor called over to Jacob.

"Oi boss!" he yelled.

"Not now." Jacob yelled back, never taking his eyes off Harry.

"It's important." the other told him. "The leaches are coming." Jacob snarled and turned in the direction of the end of the corridor, still keeping a tight hold on Harry. The werewolves in front of them parted and Harry saw a group of tall, slender students (that he was pretty sure were all vampires) advancing towards them. A tall vampire with dark brown hair styled into a quiff stepped forward and Harry assumed that he was their leader.

"Hello Jacob." the vampire said. "Still terrorising the other students I see."

"This doesn't concern you Edward now back off." Jacob growled. The vampire, Edward, snorted and took another step towards the two of them, the rest of the werewolves squaring off against the clan of vampires.

"I think you'll find it does concern me Jacob," Edward said smoothly. "because you see that's one of my clan that your terrorising. Now," he said pulling Jacob off Harry and putting his arm around him. "how about we take you out of here, my little friend."

"This is the first time we've spoken." Harry stated fixing Edward with an annoyed and sceptical glance.

"Nonsense," Edward waved him off, pulling him closer to his chest. "we're vampires; we're all one big family."

"Thanks," Harry said prising Edward's arm from around his neck and placing it back by his side. "but I'm ok thanks." He went to leave but felt a hand gab his collar and pull him backwards before Jacob shoved him back into the lockers again.

"Hey," he shouted. "we're not finished here yet! I told you to stay away from Romulus and you didn't; now you're going to pay!"

"Ha!" Edward scoffed puling Jacob off Harry once again. "Why on earth would you want to hang around with a moronic werewolf like that, when you could be spending your time with majestic vampires like us?"

"He's not a moron." Harry snapped at Edward. "You don't even know him."

"I don't need to know him." Edward stated. "All werewolves are exactly the same; moronic, uncouth beasts that have less social standing that a Zombie and even less class." Jacob lunged for Edward, slamming him into the lockers while a few of the other werewolves leapt for the vampires immediately looking for a fight.

"You want to take that back blood sucker?" Jacob shouted. Edward just looked over his shoulder at Harry and raised an eyebrow.

"Case and point." he stated. Jacob let out a low growl and threw Edward into the lockers again. He then rounded on Harry, the other werewolves who weren't already engaged with a fight with one of the vampires, closed in on him. The two nearest to him grabbed his arms, holding him so that he couldn't get away while the rest of them held off the vampires trying to pull him away.

"Jacob's going to teach you a lesson you're never going to forget." the werewolf holding his left arm sneered at him. Harry tied in vein to tug his right arm out of the other werewolf's grasp as Jacob advanced on him. If he could just grab his wand then he could fight back on his own terms but as he was now he couldn't do anything to defend himself unless it was physically and he was pretty sure that even the weakest of these werewolves was stronger than he was.

Harry looked over to see two other werewolves had Edward pinned to the lockers so that he couldn't save him (not that Harry would actually admit that he needed saving but in this instance he was willing to concede that he actually did). Jacob was advancing towards him, his fist raised to begin his torture and beating of Harry when a high pitched squeak from the end of the corridor made all of them stop and turn around.

"Harry!" Draculaura cried as she took in the scene in front of her. "What's going on?" One of the nearest werewolves rounded on her.

"This doesn't concern you now get out of here!" he snarled.

"Don't touch her!" Harry shouted, anger running through his veins and giving him strength to pull one of his arms out of the grasp of the werewolf holding him. "Draculaura get out of here." he called to her.

"I'll go get Clawd and Romulus." she told him as she darted off the way she had come.

"By the time she's gone and got those traitors you'll be a pile of dust." Jacob snarled as the other werewolf grabbed his arm again.

As Jacob raised his fist once again the grip of both the werewolves holding Harry slackened and, putting all his strength into his shoulder, shoved first the werewolf on his left hand side and then the one on his right. Both of them felt to the floor, knocking some of the members of their pack into the vampires standing around them and a scuffle began.

Fangs were bared on both sides as werewolves and vampires collided with each other in the small corridor. In the fray Harry managed to dart out of the centre away from Jacob and Edward who had thrown off the vampires holding him and jumped onto Jacob, pulling him backwards and away from Harry. Jacob was a lot stronger than Edward and easily pulled himself out of the other's grasp and lunged for Harry again. Harry felt a hand grab his ankle and he tripped falling face first to the floor. He rolled over to see both Jacob and Edward looming over him. He shoved his hand into his bag and pulled it out, pointing it at the two above him.

"What's that?" Edward asked looking at the wand in confusion.

"It's a stick." Jacob scoffed.

"It's more than just a stick." Harry said crawling backwards so that he could push himself to his feet. By this point all the other vampires and werewolves had turned to stare at Harry pointing his wand at both the boys in front of him. "One word and this stick could explode in both your faces." he panted trying the best way to explain how his wand worked without going into too much detail and being intimidating at the same time. It seemed to work as both Edward and Jacob visibly stiffened.

"Let's not get hasty and do anything we'll regret here my friend." Edward said raising his hands in defence.

"Y…yeah." Jacob stammered slightly taking a step backwards and away from the wand pointed at his face. "Just put the stick down and we can talk."

"Why the hell do you think I want to talk?" Harry asked in exasperation, glaring at him. "You threatened me without actually knowing anything about me and you," he added turning to Edward. "you suddenly show up out of the blue and expect me to take your side just because we're both vampires? What the hell is wrong with the pair of you?"

"Listen we just…" Jacob began.

"No you listen!" Harry all but shouted. "I'm not interested in your stupid little feud! I've got enough of my own problems without having to deal with people like you on my case. The fact of the matter is that I'm not going to stay away from Romulus or even Clawd or Clawdeen just because you people say I have to. I am my own person and I won't be told what to do. I'm going to hang out with whoever I damn well like and I'm going to date whoever I damn well like. I don't want to be part of this feud! Just because I'm a vampire doesn't mean I want to be part of any of this."

"We didn't say you had to be part of it we just…" Jacob began.

"I'm not done!" Harry half cried, cutting him off. "Do I look done?" he asked turning to one of the werewolves behind him. The werewolf shrugged, a mildly terrified look in his eye, before Harry turned back to Jacob and Edward.

"Look we're sorry." Edward said.

"We shouldn't have dragged you into this." Jacob added.

"Considering as you're new in town and everything." Edward concluded.

"We didn't mean to piss you off." Jacob put in. Harry just glared at the both of them. He was well beyond the realms of pissed off by this point. He had been threatened, talked down too, ignored, chased and nearly beaten up by these people and he was sick and tired of the both of them and wanted to have nothing more to do with them.

"Now all of you are going to leave me and my friends alone regardless of whether they're vampires, werewolves or not." he growled. "Got it?"

"But this is a thousand year old feud." Edward stated.

"Yeah you don't just stop something like that." Jacob added.

"I'm not saying you have to stop." Harry sighed, lowering his wand slightly. "I'm just saying that you have to leave me and my friends out of it because we don't want any part of it."

Jacob and Edward looked at each other and, for a moment, it almost seemed as if they would call it a truce so Harry lowered his wand although still keeping a tight grasp on it just in case he needed to. He was right to keep the hold on it as in an instant every single vampire and werewolf down the corridor turned, seemingly having the exact same thought in unison, and lunged for him, Jacob and Edward leading the charge.

"If you threaten your own kind then you're no better than the werewolves." Edward shouted.

"We'll put you in your place then we'll deal with the rest of your friends who turned their back on their own kind and started associating with you." Jacob roared.

"You asked for it then." Harry said and raised his wand again. He opened his mouth to utter a spell but no sound came out. Instead, as if acting by itself (just like it had when he faced Voldemort in the graveyard after the Triwizard Tournament) the tip of his wand began to glow with a brilliant golden shimmer and a blinding flash of golden light erupted form the end of it. The force of the spell was so strong that Harry had to reach up with his other hand and grip the wand in both to stop himself from being pushed backwards and hurtling into the wall behind.

He couldn't see anything of what was happening to the monsters in front of him, all he could see was the blinding gold of the spell as his wand seemed to work on its own. He couldn't hear anything – no screams of agony or terror of the walls beginning to crack and debris flying everywhere – all he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears and the roaring light shooting out from his wand. He felt a strange and bizarre kind of magic he had never felt before flowing through him and he knew that he had finally, somehow, mastered the balance between his vampire powers and the powers he already had as a wizard. The power flowed through his every fibre and out over the people who had been threatening him only moments before.

After what seemed like an eternity to Harry (especially considering the burning in his upper arm muscles from the effort of holding his wand) the light began to fade and the spell dissipated. He lowered his wand and looked at down the corridor at the destruction he had just caused. Every single vampire and werewolf was lying dazed or unconscious on the floor, there were cracks along all of the walls and there was a large chuck missing from the ceiling. He lowered his wand, eyes wide, wondering how on earth he was going to be able to explain his way out of this one when he heard a stampede of footsteps flying down the corridors towards him.

"Harry!" Romulus shouted as he rounded the corner with Ron, Hermione, Clawd, Draculaura and Duce at his heels. "We've come to rescue you…" he tailed off as he took in the sight of the destroyed hallway and the piles of unconscious werewolves and vampires in front of him.

"I told you Harry would be fine on his own." Hermione stated beaming proudly at him.

"But how did you take them all out at once?" Clawd asked.

"Yeah, that's totally stone cold cool!" Duce added. Harry just shrugged, a small grin tugging at the corners of his lips.

"I'm half wizard remember." he stated and Ron whooped with delight, punching the air to cheer on his best friend as Clawd gave him a clap on the back.

"How in ghoul's name are we going to clean all this up?" Draculaura asked after they had all finished congratulating Harry.

"I don't really know actually." he said, feeling his stomach drop slightly.

"Well we need to get this fixed before Bloodgood finds out or you're going to be in so much trouble." Draculaura told him just before a cough sounded from behind her. All of them turned to see Headmistress Bloodgood standing behind her glaring at Harry.

"Mr Potter," she said, her voice shaking slightly. "I'd like to see you in my office immediately."

"You're for it now mate." Ron whispered.

"Yeah…" Harry replied laughing nervously at the murderous look his new Headmistress was giving him.

"Don't worry." Romulus whispered. "I'll wait until you get out." Harry looked up at him and smiled as Romulus gave his hair a ruffle. He may be going back to Hogwarts earlier than he had originally expected but at least he still had the one person he had destroyed half a building for.

"I'm afraid, Mr Potter, that we will have to send you back to your old school earlier than planned." Bloodgood told him when they were back in her office. "For no other reason than we simply can't afford to remodel the school every few weeks when your magical powers gets out of hand." This was poignantly emphasised as a sizable chunk of the ceiling fell and crashed to the floor next to her desk.

"I understand." Harry said and he did. The school couldn't really afford to have a student who had the power to destroy half the building when they got angry. "So when would you like me to return to Hogwarts?"

"As soon as possible." Bloodgood stated as another piece of the ceiling fell to the floor, this time landing behind the chair Harry was sitting in.

"Well thank you for everything you did for me while I was here." Harry said getting to his feet. Despite the circumstances in which he was leaving Bloodgood smiled at him.

"Thank you Mr Potter." she said warmly. "You've certainly made Monster High a more interesting place in the time you've been here and maybe Edward and Jacob will now settle their differences considering that they both seem to have been put in their place in front of their packs. Now if you wouldn't mind sending them in on your way out; I would like to have a word with both of them." Harry smiled and left the office.

He found Edward and Jacob sitting on two chairs just outside the office door both looking sullen and sulky as a girl with dark hair berated both of them. Harry had never seen this girl before but judging by the way she was thoroughly chewing the pair of them out he was pretty sure that she knew the kind of arguments the two of them had been getting themselves in.

"…and I don't actually remember ever saying that I wanted to go out with either of you!" the girl cried in exasperation.

"But Bella you said that you'd go to the prom with one of us!" Edward almost whined.

"I said I might consider going to the prom with one of you if you stopped behaving like such childish idiots!" Bella shot back, prodding him in the chest. "As it stands, you can't stop letting this stupid ancient feud get in the way of everything and I'm not going to go anywhere with either of you!"

"So who are you going to the prom with instead?" Jacob asked.

"Not that it's any of your business but I've found someone much cooler and much more sophisticated than either of you two to go out with." As she finished speaking Harry heard a blare of music and an excitable shout from down the corridor and turned to see Holt – Monster High's resident party animal – hurtle down the corridor and fling his arms around Bella when he reached her.

"Let's go babe," he sang. "I've got the need to party in my blood and the music is calling me!" Bella turned to smirk at Edward and Jacob, who both looked totally dejected at being blown out for Holt, before leaving with him in a clang of guitar music that seemed to come from nowhere. Once they had both disappeared Edward and Jacob turned to see Harry.

"Bloodgood wants to talk to you." he told them, a cheeky grin on his face. Both of them sighed before heaving themselves to their feet and trailing into her office.

Harry sighed happily and made his way out towards the front of the school to meet his friends. When he had first come to Monster High he had known that it was only going to be for a short amount of time and he was looking forward to seeing his beloved Hogwarts once again but he was going to miss all the friends he had made there. He pushed open the front door of the school and found everyone waiting outside for him. Draculaura, Clawd and Romulus were standing in the centre of the yard with Ron and Hermione on one side and Clawdeen, Frankie, Lagoona and the rest on the other. The girls were holding a large banner that read 'We'll miss you Harry!'

"Hey guys," Harry said smiling as he walked down the steps towards them all. "what's all this?"

"Well," Frankie began. "we figured that after you kind of…"

"Destroyed the school." Clawdeen put in.

"That Bloodgood would probably send you back to your other school." Frankie continued as if CLawdeen hadn't spoken.

"So we thought we'd send you off with a proper goodbye." Lagoona concluded. Harry smiled at them, feeling a small lump of sadness forming in his throat. He was going to miss all of them and the fact that they had come out to see him off (even Cleo, who actually looked a little sad herself) made him want to leave even less.

"You guys!" Harry chocked. "I'll miss you all too!" As the words were out of his mouth the girls dropped the banner and ran over to him, jumping on him and hugging him tightly. Once they had let go of him he found another pair of arms being flung around his neck and he heard a series of high pitched squeaks as Dracualura cried into his shoulder.

"Oh Harry I'm going to miss you so much!" she sobbed tightening her grip on his neck. Harry smiled and hugged her tightly.

"I'm going to miss you too." he told her. "I'll come and see you every single holiday and if I can get out on weekends."

"Really?" Draculaura sniffed, wiping away her tears and leaving mascara smudges underneath her eyes. Harry smiled at her.

"Of course." he replied. "We're family and I've only just got to know you."

"Oh Harry!" she cried throwing herself on him again. "I'm so happy! I'll write to you all the time and you better write back to me."

"I will." Harry smiled as she let go of him and Clawd came over to shake his hand. "Thanks for everything Clawd." he said smiling warmly.

"Don't mention it," Clawd smiled back. "but do come back and see us soon. We're all going to miss you loads and it'll be damn near impossibly to replace you on the team." Harry laughed.

"I'm sure you'll find someone." he stated and Clawd laughed.

"But seriously though," he said. "look after yourself and don't get into any more trouble."

"Hey," Harry replied holding up his hands in defence. "trouble usually finds me, it's not my fault that crazy stuff always happens to me."

"Sure it isn't." Clawd grinned before pulling Harry into a very tight hug and going over to comfort Draculaura who was still in a flood of tears. Harry looked over at Romulus and slowly made his way over to him.

His stomach felt heavy and he felt that if he opened his mouth then he would burst into tears because he really didn't want to have to say goodbye to him. He knew that they would still keep in touch and he would come back to see him but it wouldn't be the same not seeing him every day. Once he reached the werewolf, Romulus pulled Harry into a hug and pressed his lips against his in what felt like the perfect goodbye kiss. Harry felt tears pricking at his eyes as Romulus pulled away and looked down at him.

"So I guess this is goodbye then." Harry whispered, not daring to speak any louder in case his voice cracked.

"Oh I'm coming with you." Romulus told him.

"What?" Harry asked his eyes widening in confusion.

"I'm coming to Hogwarts with you." Romulus said, spelling it out for him.

"But you can't do magic." Harry said a little stupidly. Romulus shrugged.

"It's a big place I'm sure there's something I can do that doesn't involve magic." he stated.

"We spoke to Dumbledore," Hermione said from behind him. "and he said that Hagrid could always do with an extra pair of hands on the grounds, especially now that he's a teacher and he's got Grawp to look after as well."

"So even if Romulus isn't a Hogwarts student he can still stay with you." Ron grinned. Harry looked back up at Romulus who smiled down at him.

"So I'm coming with you, whether you like it or not." he whispered in Harry's ear.

"I can't believe you did all this for me." Harry said trying to keep himself from crying with happiness.

"Hey," Romulus shrugged wiping away a tear that had formed in the corner of Harry's eye before it fell down his face. "you decimated an entire corridor of werewolves and vampires for me so I thought I better return the favour."

"But what about the prophecy and Voldemort and everyone else that seems to be trying to kill me?" Harry asked.

"I told you, didn't I; you're mine and I'm not letting you go." he replied.

"But it's going to be really dangerous." Harry warned but Romulus just shrugged.

"I've survived afternoons with 'the Shoe Squad'; I think I can handle it."

"But…" Harry began again but Romulus put a finger to his lips cutting him off.

"But nothing." he said. "I love you and I'm not letting you go."

"I love you too." Harry smiled and leaned his head against Romulus' chest. He may have to go and face Voldemort and the hardest challenge of his life now but if he had Romulus by his side he felt like he could do anything.

**I hope you all enjoyed this. I enjoyed writing it, both the story and the challenge were really fun. There are a lot of ANs I'd like to put into this but I'm way too tired right now - it's been quite an emotional day for me and Druid - sorry for the dodgy puns. Love you all S-E xxx**


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